I think I've got a dead battery

[ralph13]

I don't know for sure, but when I tried starting my GS up it made a whining sound and just died.  I tried again a few hours later, and it did the same. It's full of gas, and the oil light does turn off when the bike makes that whine (it's lsome kind of an attempt at starting, and when I start in first gear it does move forward). I don't know anyone else with a GS500 nearby, but my friend has a car.

Most of my posts are about various things going wrong with my GS and how to fix 'em  So it's pretty obvious I'm not too mechanically inclined, but I imagine it wouldn't be too hard to charge a dead battery. Is it possible to do it with jumper cables and the battery from a car?

[CndnMax]

you can jump it from a car (12volt system), use a battery jump pack, bump start it, or use a trickle charger to recharge it. if the battery cant hold a charge it could be a bad .

[coll0412]

Is it possible to do it with jumper cables and the battery from a car?

Yes it is, but do it when the vehicle is off or NOT RUNNING

You can also put a multimeter set to Vdc and measure the voltage across the battery, it should be more than 12V. Once it gets started you can also see if its charging by revving it past 4000RPM and see what the voltage readout at the battery is while revveing it. It should be 14V or higher if I remember correctly

[ralph13]

Well, it turns out my friend has no jumper cables. So, I'm thinking about just taking out the battery and pedaling it over to Auto Zone to get it charged. Is the battery difficult to remove?

[Kerry]

Is the battery difficult to remove?

Nope!

   * Remove the seat
   * Undo two screws on the battery posts
   * Pull the vent hose from one end
   * Lift the battery out

Don't lose the nuts that are now free to slide out of the battery posts!

[ralph13]

Is the battery difficult to remove?

Nope!

   * Remove the seat
   * Undo two screws on the battery posts
   * Pull the vent hose from one end
   * Lift the battery out

Don't lose the nuts that are now free to slide out of the battery posts!

Thanks! 

[sledge]

12v across the terminals means nothing, ask Auto-zone to load test the battery. This test applies an electrical load across the battery and measures the coreseponding volt-drop. This in turn indicates if the battery is holding charge and how well it is performing in use....... No point trying to charge it if it has reached the end of its life and cant hold a charge.

[ralph13]

  I got my GS working again.

I decided to ask another neighbor of mine if he had cables, and it turns out he actually had a charger that he let me borrow. So, I took out my battery, hooked it up to the charger and waited a bit. I put it in the GS and it's going great. I'm hoping it lasts.

[GI_JO_NATHAN]

Hope it works out for you! Just to let you know I had the same thing happen to me once. It was fine for about a day after I charged it. Next morning I went to crank it to go to work, and it was completely dead.
I went and got a new battery, but you could also cycle the battery a few times and it'll last longer.